Tyto didn't appeal to me a ton, I'd need to see more of that one before I take the plunge. Maybe it's the burn from Spore still there. But with that said...

Empire of the Undergrowth looks awesome and I can see the potential even from the first trailer. I'm genuinely a little hyped after seeing the ants and remembering Sim Ant. My hope is that it has more than just a nostalgia trip.

Wow, so this game is eerily similar to a game I pitched in the last semester of my game design education. I even made a sort of prototype with it (sort of, because it wasn't really playable, I just wanted to show how in general the game would look.). Unfortunately, nobody wanted to join my project, so I had to join someone else's team.

Here some pictures:

I had a map generator that would fill the entire map with earth tiles (or whatever the standard tile type was on the map), except for the ones you placed in the editor. Also, my goal was to make as much of the game a hexagon as well, including the actual map. Also buttons in the interface and everything would ideally be hexagons, but I never got this far.

Just some environment objects. This is actually an early version. Later versions had more tile types like sand, gravel, wood, rock, etc.

Despite there being no ants, I did programm a fully functional earthworm. You can see how it leaves behind a tunnel as it moves through the earth. Also if it dies, it would leave meat pebbles behind.

This, this makes me both very excited but also very very sad at the same time. Wow.If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room sobbing and rejoicing simultaneusly.